In the drilling and completion industry, the formation of boreholes for the purpose of production or injection of fluid is common. The boreholes are used for exploration or extraction of natural resources such as hydrocarbons, oil, gas, water, and alternatively for CO2 sequestration. Downhole screens are frequently used to prevent solids from being produced from the formation. These screens are provided as tubular sections referred to as joints. Each screen joint is connectable to an adjacent screen joint, typically using a threaded connection. Gravel slurry is delivered to the annular space around the screens in the well bore with the object being to fill up the annular space with sand or other materials generally referred to as gravel. Gravel packing assembly pumps gravel slurry down tubing and the slurry exits the tubing to allow the slurry to flow into an annulus formed between a screen and the well casing or open hole. The liquid in the slurry flows into the formation of the well and/or the openings in the screen, which are sized to prevent the gravel from entering the screen. The gravel collects around the screen to form the gravel pack. The gravel allows flow of produced fluids there through and into the screen while blocking the flow of particulates produced with the formation fluids.
Many times the delivered gravel can bridge, which results in bare spots around the screens and an ineffective gravel packing operation. Various types of systems have been developed in the past to address the inefficiency of the gravel delivery around an annular space in a screen downhole with respect to bridging. When bridges caused by obstructions are created in the annulus, secondary flow path tubes, also called bypass tubes, transport tubes, shunt tubes, and alternate flow paths, which are in fluid communication with the gravel slurry, allow the slurry to flow through the tubes and out into the annulus through openings in the tubes downstream of the bridge. Thus, the annulus past the bridge can be packed with the gravel by employing the tubes. Where no annular obstruction exists, the secondary flow path tube is naturally bypassed for the easier flowing annulus.
The art would be receptive to improvements in gravel packing systems and methods.